Ami, a Portrait from Life

I like how this one turned out. Our model, Ami, posed nicely. She hardly moved, and I had a very good place to paint in. This is a 9" x 12", oil on linen, painted at our Saturday morning painting group.

Vanna from the Ukraine

Another talented and lovely model who posed for us at the Scottsdale Artists School: Vanna. She is posing in a dress she made herself, one that would be a ceremonial dress in her native Ukraine. Just a super model who was so much fun to paint.

11" x 14"

oil on linen

Hyter Group Portrait

Another Saturday morning spent painting from the live model. It is the single best way to become really observant about color. We have a problem at our group because the overhead lights are too bright and they reflect the green wall up and into our model's skin tones. This creates very strange lighting, especially when it is combined with the warm incandescent lighting of the spot light. A few of us have asked to have the overhead lights turned off to create a more dramatic lighting effect and eliminate the green reflections but sooner or later they always turn the lights back on.

Our model was a wonderful young woman from India and she wore a bright yellow scarf. I used a 14" x 18" linen board (Centurian brand) and I was almost finished after the two hour pose. I painted the rest of the scarf in when I got home.

Mati

14" x 18" 

Another Head Study

This gorgeous looking lady was out model at the Hyter Group last week. It is very helpful when the model actually holds their head in one position and can maintain a bright and alert pose. It's not as easy as it appears. I had to leave early and they started late so this is about an hour and a half. When I know the time is limited I do try to pare things down to the essentials and I am not always as careful with my transitions between dark and light. Still, this sometimes results in a positive result. I toned the 1/2" birch board the night before with a light mixture of black and yellow ocher so it was dry when I started the portrait. The light green really created a dramatic contrast to her red hair so in a way it was just a lucky choice of colors for the underpainting.

11" x 14" oil on birch panel

$150

A two hour portrait of Andre, size 16" x 20", completed from life.